May the mumbling commence!
When it comes time to make changes in our lives, are we willing to tell the truth? There once was a woman who suffered from hemorrhaging for twelve years. She did everything possible to fix her problem. Everything she had she spent on doctors.
Then, she went in faith to Jesus. She was desperate. She thought if she could only touch his clothes, she would be healed. She was right, but that wasn’t enough. She ended up telling the whole truth to Jesus. She could not remain anonymous in the crowd. Read from Mark chapter five:
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?'"
But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." (Verses 24b-34)
The woman told Jesus the whole truth. I wonder what the truth was. Did she trust so fully in science to heal her? Did she go to Jesus as a last resort? That may have been part of the whole truth.
Trusting in science and our own decision making can cause us great suffering and sap our bank accounts. How often do we go to Jesus when we hurt? We could go and receive support from our Christian brothers and sisters. How often do we tell our church families about our needs – whether they are financial or spiritual? We want to keep anonymous in the crowd, like the woman. Jesus is enough, isn’t he? Yes. Yet, we also need one another.
And, we can go to God in prayer. How many times have you heard someone say, “There’s nothing to do now but pray?” Sometimes, this statement has prayer undergirding it from the very beginning. But, sometimes, this statement relegates prayer to the last resort. You know, I have tried everything else, so now I will pray.
Prayer should be with us always. It is an agent of change for us – our attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions. This thought begs the question: Are we ready for change? Read from John chapter five:
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie – the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. (Verses 1-9a)
There is the question: Do you want to get well? The paralyzed man told Jesus yes, but he needed help that no one would give him. The pool for healing would only heal the first person to get in the water after it stirred.
Jesus is far greater than the pool at the Sheep Gate. The woman with hemorrhaging interrupted Jesus on his way to heal a sick girl. Both the woman and the girl were healed – both of whom were thought to be beyond help. Both of their lives were changed dramatically – the woman could now be clean and the girl came back from the dead. The paralyzed man’s life would change. He would have to earn his living. He started with the first few steps with his mat in hand.
How do we answer that question: Do you want to get well? Are we willing to accept change in our routines? Let’s tell the whole truth to ourselves. Jesus already knows.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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